Kids

Kawaii Box is a fun monthly subscription box from Japan! We got our May Kawaii Box at the end of the month, so you get another cute unboxing video from us now. Enjoy!

If Kawaii Box sounds good to you here’s a link to subscribe. I am paying for our monthly subscription and am not receiving anything free for review purposes. However I did sign up for their affiliate program. So if you use my link to subscribe you will be helping fund our future Kawaii Box awesomeness. Thank you!

Episode 160 of The Mommy Gamers Podcast might be the first actual successful attempt at a quickie show. Carrie spent a little time at the hospital almost having her baby, and while she needed the rest…she hates missing a podcast so they made this one quick. That doesn’t mean this show isn’t slam packed with our usual epic content, it just means you got it a little faster and funnier this week. Marcia, Desirai and Carrie chat about the last game they couldn’t put down. Marcia discusses, Hoagie, a fun new card game she got to review and play with her daughter. Desirai discovered Tinitell, a wearable mobile phone for kids.

Remember that sigh of relief you let out when you realized The Vampire Diaires talk was over…forever? Well, now Carrie and Desirai have moved on to talking about The Vampire Diaries spin-off The Originals and Marcia ins’t very happy about it. Listen for this and amazingly enough so much more for such a short show. If you’re still reading this, please leave us some comments or a review wherever you get this podcast. We appreciate the support!

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Hoagie is a strategy card game for ages five and up that tasks players with building the perfect sandwich.

March 23, 2017

Hoagie is a strategy card game for ages five and up that tasks players with building the perfect sandwich. In Hoagie, the goal is to be the first person to create a complete hoagie while spoiling the other players’ ingredients using Oogie cards. Oogies are mischevious creatures who will spoil your delicious sandwich ingredients in a hilarious variety of ways, such as a couple of Oogies who grow a mold farm on your fresh slice of bread. Spoiled ingredients are easily fixed by placing a new fresh ingredient on top, but with only six cards in your hand at a time it’s not always an easy task. Other cards may reverse game play, skip a turn, or allow you to play two cards at one adding some extra fun ways to foil your opponents plans.

You can tell by my daughter Hailey’s face that we had an absolutely amazing time trying out this new game. Her PaPa joined us for a few rounds and we all agree that this is a great game for any age range. Hailey, who turns seven next month, was easily able to grasp the rules of gameplay and found the pictures included in the instructions to be a helpful guide. As a parent, I personally found the quick game play perfect. The game lists a play time of about twenty minutes, but we were able to breeze through most games much faster than that. The short game time coupled with the small size of the game, makes this perfect for tossing in your bag for a few rounds before dinner out or anywhere you may end up with a few minutes to fill in your day.

When I asked Hailey what she thought about Hoagie, she said it reminded her of Burgertime, a classic arcade game from the 1980’s where players create hamburgers…except the bad ingredients weren’t really trying to hurt you. This is clearly a sign of two things: Hailey has great taste in games, and she and her mommy spend a little too much time in the local classic coin arcade. But honestly, this girl knows her games, and considering she has asked to play it every evening over the last week…I’d say this game has the Hailey seal of approval. That means the game also gets The Mommy Gamers seal of approval, because any game that makes our kids happy makes us happy.

You can purchase a copy of Hoagie for $17.50 on their website: www.quirkyengine.com/store/hoagie-game-limited-edition

*Please note: The Mommy Gamers were given a copy of Hoagie for review purposes, but our opinions are all our own.

This week the ladies talk about Deadpool, the new horror game Layers of Fear, their adventures with Unravel game from EA, Soma, Marvel Avengers Academy, console exclusives, Scare PewDiePie, That Dragon, Cancer and more.

Interested in supporting The Mommy Gamers? Earn exclusive rewards by becoming a patron on Patreon. Remember, you can subscribe to The Mommy Gamers podcast for FREE on iTunes and Stitcher or you can access The Mommy Gamers app through Podcast Box on iTunes or in the Amazon app store for Android. Don’t forget to follow them on Twitter, and Facebook too!

As is probably evident from my chatter on the podcast and online in general, I play a lot of games. Most evenings once the kids go to bed I park myself in front of my TV, grab a controller, and spend about four hours in that position until I finally give in to sleep. Given that I spend so many hours playing games I’m constantly seeking a way to make that activity more comfortable.

I have a tendency to rest my arms on my legs when I play and that position causes me to kind of roll my back and shoulders forward. This is especially problematic for me because I have a bad right shoulder due to an old injury. My solution to this problem was to stack a bunch of pillows on my lap so my arms were supported and my back was in the right position. The pillow solution works but it’s unwieldy at best and doesn’t really support my whole arm unless I use enormous pillows.

Given all of that I was super pleased to see GlomTom had created a product that solved my arm position issue extremely effectively. The GlomTom is a u-shaped pillow that sits around your waist and supports your arm when you hold a controller or tablet. It’s got a slight angle to it, 15 degrees to be precise, which puts your arms in a more natural position than if they were draped along your legs with no support.

My kid is never going to give this back.

I spent about a week with the GlomTom standing in for my usual pillow method and I can honestly say I’m impressed. The pillow itself is extremely sturdy and actually supports my arms without them sinking into it. The GlomTom wraps around the sides of my waist which means my whole forearm and elbow are supported and nothing hangs off. My back and shoulders stay in the right position and I don’t have the hassle of stacking a million pillows on my lap in an effort to avoid stiffness and discomfort.

The cover is removable and washable which anyone with kids knows is a must. There is also a neat little pocket at the front which I didn’t have much use for but my four year old son really liked being able to put his water bottle there while he played. In fact my son tried to claim the GlomTom as his after it was in the house for only 24 hours. He loves putting the thing on his lap, throwing his tablet on it, and playing. His exact words were “Mommy, this pillow is rad!” He’s right the GlomTom can be described as rad.

Well the cat has claimed it. Now I KNOW I’m never getting it back.

If you’re reading this and finding yourself interested you can order the GlomTom online for a reasonable $60. There is also an app in both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store that they use to give out special offers. Considering the build quality of the GlomTom I think $60 is a fair price but if you can score a special offer to it a bit that’s a no brainer.

I can honestly say I’ll be using this particular gaming accessory for years. I’m not usually one for specialty items like this but the GlomTom truly makes playing games more comfortable for me. It’s a wonderful bonus that my son also enjoys using it. If he keeps stealing it I may have cause to get a second one in the house so I don’t have to share. Actually I may have to get the cat one too or I’ll have to face her furry wrath every time I want to play video games with the GlomTom.

Becoming a parent means many different things to different people. To me, it’s invigorating, frustrating, challenging and fulfilling all at the same time. Recently in a rare moment of quiet when my daughter was taking her afternoon nap, all of my professional writing and editing duties were finished and the dogs had settled down and decided to stop bothering me, I realized the act of raising a child holds a lot of parallels with fighting a boss battle in a game. Here are just a few of those similarities.

Their arrival is met with both anticipation and trepidation

Being pregnant is like living in a constant state of anticipation. Besides your own feelings, everyone around you is also eagerly awaiting the arrival of your child – friends, family, strangers who suddenly feel the need to talk to you and touch your belly. In many games, I’m often eagerly awaiting the next boss battle. After defeating the hydra in God of War, I was on the edge of my seat to see which fantastical mythological creature I would be battling next.

But then at some point, the anticipation turns to trepidation. Games achieve this by giving you glimpses of the creature you’ll be fighting before you actually fight them. To stick with the God of War example, throughout the game, you can see the hulking figure of Ares causing death and destruction in the background, knowing all too well that you’re going to need to be the one to bring him down. There are certain times during pregnancy that can do the same thing. Perhaps you see the blank, exhausted look in the eyes of a mom who is pushing her screaming child in a cart in the grocery store. For me the trepidation started when we set up my daughter’s room. For some reason, the relative permanence of the furniture was a sign that this was really happening. It was that “Uh oh. Here we go” moment.

They drain your health and energy

Bosses in games are always powerful, and a direct hit from one can often take you down to half health or less. But besides your in-game health, fighting a well-designed boss can be mentally fatiguing as well. Your alertness and reflexes need to be hyperfocused, and in some games (I’m looking at you Ocarina of Time) the sounds associated with running around with low health are enough to drive you insane. Kids are no different. Even after you successfully navigate the sleep-deprived newborn stage, your kids will have an uncanny ability to catch all sorts of nasty illnesses that will then be passed on to you. Not to mention the mental and physical energy it takes to deal with a willful toddler who insists on doing the exact opposite of what you say and then finds it hilarious when you get angry.

They require you to make use of all of your skills and abilities

Often, fighting a boss battle will require you to come out of your gaming comfort zone and put to use some things you may be able to get by the rest of the game without doing. Personally, I’m not very good at using ranged weapons in games, so whenever I would come up against a boss that had some element that required me to use a ranged weapon, I would always groan. Similarly, my daughter has forced me to be extremely patient, more empathetic and markedly less sarcastic than I’ve ever been in my life before.

Just when you think you’ve got them figured out, they change things up

Kids are notorious for this. A child that has loved to eat a certain kind of food will suddenly refuse to touch it, or a baby that has been peacefully sleeping all night long will start waking you up at 2 a.m. again. I’ve personally found if I feel like I’m cruising along comfortably when it comes to my daughter, then I better watch out because some new challenge is just around the corner. Bosses are the same way. Most traditional bosses have at least three different stages, each of which requires its own strategy to defeat or survive.

Finishing the battle is both exhausting and fulfilling

Defeating a particularly challenging boss can leave your in-game character low on health and your hands feeling like those of an arthritic old man, but it’s satisfying all the same. In parenthood, the battle is daily. At the end of each day I often feel like I’ve been running in circles while accomplishing little, but then my daughter will give me a hug and tell me that she loves me, and I know I wouldn’t trade this feeling for anything.

At only 13-years-old, Christian Hahn is already building his resume. First bullet point on his career history section? Illustrating a published children’s book.

Friends with Fins: The Talent Show, is a story about the adventures of a group of elementary school fish. The book, geared towards kids ages 3 to 12, includes lots of fun facts about marine life. Hahn was asked to illustrate the book by his family member, Jaclyn Friedlander, who was visiting from California.

Friedlander, who in addition to being an actor and a published author, also has roots in the gaming community. Friedlander attends E3 every year with her husband Timothy Riese, and they have done some mo-cap shooting and voice over work.

This story caught my eye, not only because Hahn lives just up the road from me, but also because I have a daughter his age. She also loves to draw, and I think that it’s good for kids to see their peers making their dreams happen.

Friedlander is doing a Kickstarter to get the second book in the series published. This book will once again be illustrated by Hahn. With only four days left, they are a long way from making their goal of $2,500. If you’d like to help them reach their goal, here is the link to their Kickstarter page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/search?utf8=✓&term=Friends+with+fins.

We have one copy of this book to give away to you, our readers! Leave us a comment below about what you wanted to be as a child. Did you want to be an artist, a musician, a gaming celebrity? We will select our winner randomly from the comments section next Tuesday, September 3rd.

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